With higher education institutions taking the plunge into remote board meetings via all-remote due to the coronavirus outbreak, it’s vital that they take steps to ensure efficient collaboration and decision-making in these crucial virtual sessions. In order to maximize board efficiency and effectiveness, institutions must focus on three aspects of meeting management:

Make sure your meeting participants are able to join the meeting from any device or location. Utilizing a cloud-based board portal with integrated video conferencing could help make it easy for trustees to access and participate in meetings from any location.

Create a well-organized agenda that will guide the meeting. The agenda should be distributed at least a week prior to the meeting date to allow attendees to review it and prepare talking point. A meeting agenda with time limits will keep participants on track and stop them from being distracted by tangents. Also, make sure to include any off-agenda items and agree to move them to an alternative date if required.

Consider implementing a consent agenda to make time in the meeting for noncontroversial topics that don’t require discussion or input from all members. This will free up time for https://boardmeeting.fr/2022/06/08/how-to-run-effective-remote-board-meetings/ deeper dives into the strategic issues.

Give a clear description of the manner of conduct that should be followed for virtual meetings. Include the expectation that participants be quiet even when they’re not speaking. This is a simple gesture that can go a long way in decreasing background noise and enhancing audio quality.